2012 Resolutions & Sense of the House Motions

The following resolutions and sense of the house motions were passed at the CCCC Annual Business Meeting held on Saturday, March 24, 2012 in St. Louis.

Resolution 1

Whereas Chris Anson has worked as program chair to ensure the varied voices of the profession are provided a platform to share their stories, including innovative opportunities for international scholars to participate at a distance, a renewed focus on basic writing, a celebration of undergraduate research, and a focus on improving the accessibility of the conference for all attendees;

Whereas he has organized our time together not only to foster dialogue among ourselves, but also with individuals and organizations whose work and insights can inform our classroom and disciplinary practices;

Whereas his extensive scholarship on composition theory and research, teaching and learning, writing across the curriculum, and faculty development has been an invaluable service to scholars and teachers in our profession and his international work has contributed to a global understanding of composition theory and research; and

Whereas he has done all this work in a spirit of generosity, good will, and collaboration;

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the 2012 Conference on College Composition and Communication thank Chris Anson for his many contributions to us and to the profession. (MOTION CARRIED)

Resolution 2

Whereas Vincent Casaregola and the Local Arrangements Committee have assembled a rich list of St. Louis’s historical, cultural, and entertainment attractions and has worked with the Committee on Disability Issues to provide extensive and detailed accessibility information for conference attendees;

Whereas Vincent Casaregola and the Local Arrangements Committee have helped to foster a collegial environment in which to engage in discussions of the professional, disciplinary, and social aspects of our work; and

Whereas Vincent Casaregola and the Local Arrangements Committee have demonstrated a personal commitment to ensuring every conference attendee leaves St. Louis with a rich cultural and intellectual experience;

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the 2012 Conference on College Composition and Communication applaud Vincent Casaregola and the Local Arrangements Committee for their hard work and generous hospitality. (MOTION CARRIED)

Resolution 3

Whereas the NCTE and CCCC have historically advocated for contingent faculty (that is, faculty on one-year or shorter contracts);

Whereas the NCTE and CCCC strive to be inclusive to as broad a constituency of writing/composition/literacy teachers and scholars as possible;

Whereas participation in the yearly CCCC conference is an important dimension of the professional development and sense of community among those constituencies; and

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that CCCC establish and administer a Contingent Faculty Travel Fund, funded by voluntary member contributions, and that they do so in consultation with the Labor Caucus and the Committee on Part-Time, Adjunct, or Contingent Labor. (MOTION CARRIED)

Resolution 4

Whereas the use of American Indian representations in sports perpetuates stereotypes that are harmful to Native people, and, according to a recent study by psychologist Chu Kim-Prieto, also encourages stereotyping of other minority groups by the dominant culture;

Whereas the National Collegiate Athletic Association has deemed the use of American Indian sports team names, mascots, and symbols as "hostile" and "abusive," and has forbidden schools whose teams use American Indian names or imagery from hosting championship games;

Whereas numerous American Indian intellectuals, including Devon Mihesuah, Dennis Banks, Russell Means, C. Richard King, and the late Vine Deloria, Jr. oppose the use of American Indian team names and mascots;

Whereas the American Psychological Association, the American Sociological Association, the National Education Association, the American Anthropological Association, the National Indian Education Association, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Association of American Indian Affairs, the National Congress of American Indians, the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, the United States Commission on Civil Rights, and the Modem Language Association have all passed resolutions condemning the use of images of American Indian peoples or traditions as mascots and other sports symbols; and

Whereas the National Council of Teachers of English and the Conference on College Composition and Communication advocate for the valuing of diversity and cross-cultural understanding;

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Conference on College Composition and Communication join the Modern Language Association and other professional organizations in condemning the use of representations of American Indians and other racial and ethnic groups or their names, cultures, and traditions as sports symbols, mascots, and team names. (MOTION CARRIED)

Resolution 5

Whereas CCCC is committed to the production of new knowledge in college composition and communication;

Whereas CCCC publishes several important journals in the field;

Whereas most of the larger publishers (i.e. Taylor and Francis, Sage, Oxford, Cambridge, Elsevier) of scholarly articles now allow authors to do the following to some degree without additional permission:

1) make copies of their own articles for their students;2) provide electronic copies to colleagues for personal use only;3) post the pre-print (un-refereed) version of an article to their university’s online repository or one of the government mandated repositories (PMC or BioMed Central) with proper acknowledgment;4) post the official final version of the article (post-print) in an online repository (upon publication or up to twelve months later) as long it is not part of a commercial venture and has proper acknowledgment; and5) publish the work in an edited volume or book written by the original author with proper acknowledgment;

Whereas SPARC, the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, Harvard, and others have developed author addenda to standard publishing contracts that enable authors to retain commensurate versions of the five rights identified above;

Whereas consortiums of universities including Harvard, MIT, Columbia, Kansas State University and many others are now requiring faculty to post their scholarly articles in university repositories unless exceptions are requested; and

Whereas humanities publishers lag substantially behind publishers in the sciences that have implemented the majority of these open access options;

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that CCCC-sponsored journals will provide authors a non-exclusive right to place pre- and/or post-publication drafts of their published scholarly articles on the Internet; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the CCCC will advocate for open-access publishing opportunities for other publishing venues--including other NCTE-sponsored journals--and educate scholars in the discipline to understand their rights, incentives, and responsibilities to their scholarly works. (MOTION: To refer discussion of the motion to Executive Committee for further discussion. CARRIED)

Sense of the House Motions

S1. The Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession, supporting women’s right to participate in public policy and policy discourse about their reproductive self-determination.

S2. BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that CCCC, the Council on Basic Writing, and the entire Basic Writing community recognize and laud Chris Anson’s and Howard Tinberg’s vision, leadership, and pursuit of social justice in higher Education.